The other norwegians of Caneliñas: the whaling season of 1929

Abstract

A previously unknown document from the Compañía Ballenera Española (Spanish Whaling Company), ceded to the author of this article, reveals new facts about the Norwegian whalers´ activity in Galicia in the 20th. century. Therefore an updating of what we know about their activity at the Caneliñas factory becomes unavoidable. This activity was interrupted in the year 1927 due to the decreasing number of captures, especially in the Straits of Gibraltar, with a decrease in the Company´s benefits and an increase in production costs, and the interest shown by the Norwegian management to relocate their activity in the Antarctic area. The 1928 failure on the part of the International Whaling Company to keep the factory open sealed the short term destiny of the Caneliñas factory. However, in 1929 the factory was briefly reopened again for a short period, when the newly acquired fleet that same year by S. Foyn Bruun and A. von der Lippe anchored there before joining their new floating factory, the Pontos, in their course to the Antarctic Ocean. This new documental source –the salaries register of CBE for the year 1929– provides a most valuable and previously unavailable information such as the work organization, a list of the company´s payroll, specifying salaries and production and capture bonuses, and many other facts. These are «he other Norwegian whalers», of whom nothing was known up to this moment, as the present article is going to show.